Music from Afghanistan

In my last post, I discussed some music from Iraq. This time around, we’ll go to another war-torn region, Afghanistan.

• Music from Afghanistan
  — a collection showcasing myriad instruments in differing styles that developed from Afghanistan’s location at the crossroads of South Asian, East Asian, Russian, and European cultures. 
• Omar, Mohammad  Virtuoso from Afghanistan
  — a legendary 1974 concert featuring one of the most important figures in 20th century music from Afghanistan, Ustad Mohammad Omar.  He plays the lute-like rabab with accompaniment by Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain.
• Sakhi, Homayun  Art of the Afghan Rubab
  — more rubab (another spelling of rabab) and tabla duets that demonstrate Afghanistan’s geographical proximity to the Indian subcontinent. The Smithsonian Folkways label always releases high quality products; this one has a bonus DVD plus extensive liner notes.
• Kabul Workshop  Trigana
  — traditional Afghan (and Indian) instruments combined with electronic sounds.  This UK group brings the sounds of an Afghan teahouse to the dance floor.

More music from Afghanistan can be found in two of our streaming music databases, Contemporary World Music (17 tracks) and Smithsonian Global Sound (24 tracks), both available for free to Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh cardholders.

Finally, if you want to continue your aural journeys, you can take the The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan through the whole wide region around Afghanistan, from Iran to Mongolia and lots of countries in between.

— Tim